Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 eBook

soon from Thomas a sketch-plan of your cottage, by
which I can at once tell if it will do. If not,
I must leave you and Fanny to arrange as you like
about a new residence. I should prefer being a
little way out of town in a quiet neighbourhood and
with a garden, but near an omnibus route, and if necessary
I could lodge at any time for a week in London.
This, I think, will be better and much cheaper than
living close to town, and rents anywhere in the West
End are sure now to rise owing to the approaching
Great Exhibition. I must of course study economy,
as the little money I have made will not be all got
in for a year or two after my return....

You must remember to write to me by the middle of
November mail, as that is probably the last letter
I can receive from you.

I send the letter to Fanny, who will most likely call
on you and talk over matters. I am a little confused
arriving in a new place with a great deal to do and
living in a noisy hotel, so different to my usual
solitary life, so that I cannot well collect my ideas
to write any more, but must remain, my dear mother,
your ever affectionate son,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * *
*

TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS

In the Mountains of Java. October 10, 1861.

My dear Fanny,—­I have just received your
second letter in praise of your new house. As
I have said my say about it in my last, I shall now
send you a few lines on other subjects.

I have been staying here a fortnight 4,000 feet above
the sea in a fine cool climate, but it is unfortunately
dreadfully wet and cloudy. I have just returned
from a three days’ excursion to one of the great
Java volcanoes 10,000 feet high. I slept two
nights in a house 7,500 feet above the sea. It
was bitterly cold at night, as the hut was merely of
plaited bamboo, like a sieve, so that the wind came
in on all sides. I had flannel jackets and blankets
and still was cold, and my poor men, with nothing
but their usual thin cotton clothes, passed miserable
nights lying on a mat on the ground round the fire
which could only warm one side at a time. The
highest peak is an extinct volcano with the crater
nearly filled up, forming merely a saucer on the top,
in which is a good house built by the Government for
the old Dutch naturalists who surveyed and explored
the mountain. There are a lot of strawberries
planted there, which do very well, but there were not
many ripe. The common weeds and plants of the
top were very like English ones, such as buttercups,
sow-thistle, plantain, wormwood, chickweed, charlock,
St. John’s wort, violets and many others, all
closely allied to our common plants of those names,
but of distinct species. There was also a honey-suckle,
and a tall and very pretty kind of cowslip. None
of these are found in the low tropical lands, and
most of them only on the tops of these high mountains.
Mr. Darwin supposed them to have come there during
a glacial or very cold period, when they could have
spread over the tropics and, as the heat increased,
gradually rose up the mountains. They were, as
you may imagine, most interesting to me, and I am very
glad that I have ascended one lofty mountain
in the tropics, though I had miserable wet weather
and had no view, owing to constant clouds and mist.